Keith Pompey

Inquirer Staff Writer

For many 76ers fans, reaching the playoffs this season is a bit disappointing.

Don’t get me wrong – I get it. Everyone is aware of the completely different arcs that this season and last season took.

The 2010-11 Sixers rallied to reach the playoffs after a 3-13 start. Meanwhile, this team arrives as either a seventh or eighth seed after firing out of the blocks early – with pretty much the same personnel – only to stagger in as the last guest to receive an invitation to the postseason.

The most commonly held position of those in favor of the team not qualifying for the postseason is that they would be better off in the lottery looking for some young talent that could possibly spur them on to the next level and out of their current mediocrity.

It’s a stretch, but I wonder if these same fans will feel this way if the Sixers, say – and yes, this is a reach – take the Bulls six or seven games deep in the playoffs?

Who knows? If they draw the Bulls, it’s a certainty that they are going to get them with their best player, Derrick Rose, nowhere near 100 percent. Yes, the Bulls have been very good without Rose (17-9) and even better with him (31-7). But with the reigning MVP still trying to get it back, now is a perfect time for the Sixers to hit the reset button and face the Bulls.

I think that the draft is deeper this year than it has been in recent years. And sure, the slim possibility existed that the Sixers could have leapfrogged over some teams and found themselves in position to pick even higher, although that’s not likely.

There are going to be some players that could very likely still be available (I’m thinking big men like Festus Ezeli or Fab Melo) that would be nice pieces to add to a Sixer team that could use a banger/shot-blocker.

Avoid Miami in the first round, take two games from the Bulls and then add a nice player in the draft. Sounds a whole lot better to me than the alternative. Thoughts?

Contact staff writer John N. Mitchell at jmitchell@philly.com. Follow him on Twitter @JmitchInquirer